


Snow-stilities

by TheWritingSquid



Series: The Bonds of Family [3]
Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Fluff, Fun with the whole familiars family!!, Gen, Snowball Fight, winter fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:15:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22100074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWritingSquid/pseuds/TheWritingSquid
Summary: In which Vergil has a snowball fight with his demon family and takes refuge in a cozy cabin.
Relationships: Griffon & Vergil (Devil May Cry), Nightmare & Vergil, Shadow & Vergil (Devil May Cry)
Series: The Bonds of Family [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1373107
Comments: 7
Kudos: 88





	Snow-stilities

**Author's Note:**

> No apologies for the pun. :D
> 
> This work is part of a series where Vergil bonded with his familiars again before fighting atop the Qliphoth. It stands fine alone. All you need to know is he doesn't have powers.

It started with utter disrespect.

That was always the case, wasn’t it? No one in this team respected Griffon. They’d been fixing demonic shrines and digging history for eighteen months and it was always the same--Griffon bring me this, Griffon fly me there, Griffon shut your mouth, Griffon shut your _thoughts_ \--on and on and on! No respect at all for this poor bird, for the Voice of their quatuor. Now, he could bear with Vergil’s nonsense easily; V had been even more of a little shit, so he’d had ample practice. Shadow had always loved to ignore him, too, so to get regularly pounced by her for the fun of it was only a step up in the ladder of disrespect.

Nightmare, though? Nightmare had only ever had two modes: destructive mayhem and gentle protection. Sometimes they combined into destructive protection. But they did not do _mocking_.

So to receive a snowball as large as he was while he was patiently explaining to Vergil that he should have foreseen (“used his skull”) his new lack of immunity to the cold (“weak human temperature regulation”) and bought better winter gear (“bundled up his paper body”)--that was too much!

It sent him flying with a squawk. Griffon landed in the snow, and the _whump_ of it flying around him didn’t cover Vergil’s frank laugh at his expense. Not like he couldn’t feel their collective amusement through the mindlink, anyway! Griffon hopped back on his feet, shaking them as cold snow clung to it, before ruffling his feathers to rid them of the snow and taking off.

“Y’all gonna pay for that!” he declared.

Vergil’s eyebrows shot up and he pushed his glasses up his nose, sending him a silent challenge through the link. He’d acquired those just two weeks ago, after two months of pretending his eyesight hadn’t crashed hard and fast since he’d lost his healing. It’d taken hours of mocking his mistakenly read signs by Griffon, tons of Shadow coddling him to soothe his ego, and even Nightmare refusing to lift him higher so he could sketch a shrine’s mural until he agreed to them before he gave in. In the 14 days he’d had them, Griffon had already stolen them three times.

He flew above Vergil and dove for his fourth.

Contempt flashed through the link and Vergil leaped aside as Griffon tried to close his talons around the rim--like that’d be enough to escape him. Or, well, them! He’d sense a peak of mischief from Shadow and pleaded with her as he plunged, putting emphasis on just how good a team they made, kitty and bird, and as Vergil landed in the thick snow, the panther slunk out of him. Her form remained liquid beyond the four legs, tendrils of black wrapping around Vergil’s legs. Shadow pulled him out of balance, and as Vergil fell backwards with a surprised gasp, she snatched the glasses right off his face. He landed in the sticky snow with a huff, and Griffon cackled.

“How d’you like that, paper boy!” Griffon asked, and he swooped down to relieve Shadow of her burden. “Can ya even see me now, all the way up there?”

Vergil’s fingers closed around snow, packing it, and he threw the ball without even sitting up. It flew way wide. Shadow rumbled, her patterns dancing in sync with her amusement, and Griffon burst out laughing. He returned the favour with a tiny zap of lightning at Vergil, but Nightmare rose in time to catch it. It barely tickled them, and the purple eye glowed in a subtle promise of retaliation.

Oh. Shit.

Griffon’s wings flapped hard and fast as he gained altitude, flying way out of reach of Nightmare while they helped Vergil up. The landscape spread out below, a deep valley at the bottom of which a shrine to Cerberus demons existed. Sections of it were supposed to only be accessible when the water inside froze, unlocking seals, so they meant to either enter or camp until they could. Trips through the wilderness always turned out to be Griffon’s favourites. As much as he loved providing non-stop mental commentary on city humans they passed while he hid within Vergil, being alone meant they could come out and play.

And oh boy did he have every intention of playing.

_Hey kitty, let’s team up and bury them in snow!_

Waves of amusement echoed his request, and Shadow bounded farther from Vergil and Nightmare before skidding to a stop in the snow. It reached above her knees now, and she roared before her form rippled and transformed into a dozen different tendrils. Each of them ended in a scoop and when Shadow began rotating them quickly, plunging the scoop through snow and crunching the result into a ball, Griffon whooped.

Vergil had just made it to his feet, his back to Shadow, and inklings of his fear reached them through the link. He spun around slowly… completing his turn just fast enough for Shadow’s first flurry to hit his face, chest, and leg squarely. A sharp laugh escaped him and he ducked down to avoid the next one.

“As you wish,” he declared, extending a hand towards the giant demon behind him. “Nightmare, I need you by my side. We have a fight to win.”

Nightmare melted back into their tattoo and Vergil sprinted away, slamming down his mindlink with Shadow and Griffon to cut them off from whatever plan he had. Griffon couldn’t help but cackle at the strategy--it left Shadow and him in perfect position to plot their own tactics.

“Like ya stand a chance!” Griffon called out.

Vergil sank into the snow with every step, though not enough to keep him from running. He kept ahead of Shadow’s balls, sometimes plunging forward to avoid a fast throw. If they didn’t stop him, he’d reach the forest edge and cover soon. Griffon swooped down, throwing a line of lightning ahead of Vergil. Snow exploded upward, a temporary wall blocking his way, and Vergil had to veer right instead. Griffon cackled banked down, throwing his lightning in Vergil’s path again, forcing him towards Shadow. Two snowballs hit his legs and Shadow roared.

“Two points for us, paper boy!” Griffon declared.

They had this in the bag! All he needed was to keep Vergil from reaching the forest and--

Nightmare burst out of their human again, placing themself in the lightning’s path. Vergil dove through the demon’s legs, using their massive body as protection, rolled up and back on his feet and jumped on Nightmare’s fist. Before Griffon could properly understand the maneuver, Nightmare threw him into the sky.

Vergil went flying straight for him. He flung his snowball, hitting Griffon in the wing, and then he was upon him. Griffon let out a surprised squawk as they dipped towards the ground, Vergil’s arms holding his wings firm, and the mindlink briefly reopened--long enough for him to feel the full brunt of Vergil’s smugness. They hit the snow together.

 _That ain’t a point!_ Griffon protested, and he snapped his beak at Vergil, forcing him to let go before scramble-flying up and away.

A gigantic snow _boulder_ was waiting for him. It hit in full force, sending him into Shadow as the panther tried to join the fray.

“Perhaps,” Vergil replied aloud, “but that certainly makes two, in addition to the one I threw midair. We lead.”

“As if!” Griffon flapped his wings angrily and took to the air once more.. “Ya ain’t even counting the first Shadow threw!”

Vergil’s brow shot up. “You can’t count points from before the battle is declared.”

“Whatever rules make you win, huh?”

That hit a nerve. Waves of offended frustration washed over them and Vergil crossed his arms. “I will not be said to cheat. Take your points. You can even keep my glasses; I do believe you’ll need the handicap if you want to stand a chance.”

“Ha-ah!” Griffon swooped down, landing on his head long enough to ruffle Vergil’s hair. “Hey kitty, give this poor fool his glasses. But I warn ya, Vergil, we ain’t gonna be magnaninomous like that twice!”

“It’s magnanimous,” Vergil corrected, extending his palm.

Shadow extended her entire body, wrapping it around Vergil’s arm and then up his shoulder and face, playfully covering part of it until she’d placed the glasses back upon his nose. Vergil couldn’t resist running his hand along the waves of spike in her neck, marking the brief respite in their war with his affection. Once she’d bounded backwards, he stepped closer to Nightmare again--and to the forest. Griffon circled above.

“Ready for yer throuncing, Mister Big Words!” he declared.

Vergil smirked. “Very well. Let the snow-stilities begin.”

Ugh! Griffon sent a spark towards Vergil. That pun alone should be an automatic defeat, in his book! How could one have such an awful sense of humour, truly? It defied all logic. Perhaps it was a human thing, to find cleverness in such pathetic wordpl--

A snowball zoomed past his head, too close to comfort, calling him back to order. Vergil had flung a single projectile at him before climbing up Nightmare. The demon bounded for the forest, their great legs carrying them faster than Vergil alone, and faster than Shadow and him could match. They stopped right at the edge and punched the ground, the shockwave digging a trench into the snow. Vergil leaped down, packing the snow thus pushed back into walls. What a joke--like Griffon couldn’t just fly above!

He dove towards Shadow and sent her a picture of his brand new, super-clever plan. The ultimate Griffon tactic! She rumbled in response and shifted out of her panther form, turning herself into an elongated tarp and digging her body under the snow. When Griffon flew near, the Shadow snapped her four corners up, gripping his talons and thus lifting all the snow. Oh, and revealing flaw number one in Griffon’s Perfect Plan: boy but kitty and snow were heavy.

He flapped his wings hard and fast, releasing frustrating squawks as he struggled to gain altitude. Shadow morphed her body to crush the snow into one big ball as he flew across the battlefield. He’d reached halfway when Vergil spotted them--the foolish human laughed, and then snowballs flew their way. Griffon swayed left and right as he flew, and he sent mental images of the snowballs trajectories to Shadow as they came flying for her. The shifting panther created holes in her body right before they could hit, then reformed above and absorbed the new material into their snow bomb.

And then they were finally upon Vergil. Shadow released the snow and leaped directly upon Nightmare, pouncing hard enough to unbalance them and prevent them from stopping their bomb.

Vergil’s eyes widened as the gigantic ball fell. Sunlight glinted off metal and the whisper of a drawn blade reached Griffon, then the katana split it clean in half while Vergil stepped aside. Part of the ball clipped his shoulder anyway, sending him stumbling, and Shadow twisted as she hit Nightmare’s chest and pounced down, pushing Vergil in the snow. Griffon landed by his head and hit the snow with his wings, sending it into Vergil’s face.

“Here’s a lil’ snow bath for our paper boy! That’s gotta be many points!”

Vergil coughed and wiped the snow out of his face, blue eyes shining. “You think you’ve won,” he stated, amusement rippling through every word.

Griffon understood the source of it as a great shadow fell over all three of them. He twisted his neck to look up and found Nightmare’s massive arms above, a terrifying amount of snow held in them. They opened, dumping a whole ass mini hill of the cold stuff upon their collective head, burying Vergil along with Griffon and Shadow. Heavy snow muffled the whole world around, but they didn’t need words. Vergil opened the mindlink, flooding it with his smugness.

_“If only Nightmare is left standing, I do believe my team won.”_

###

The biggest loser of their snow battle was Vergil’s winter coat. By the time Shadow and Griffon let him emerge from the heavy pile of snow, every piece of equipment on him had soaked the melted snow. He hadn’t noticed at first, caught in the smug banter with a very sore Griffon and the inner glow of a well-earned victory. Now that they’d started hiking down the mountain flank, however, wind pushed at him, cooling down his clothes and freezing them upon his body. It pierced through, leaving his teeth clattering and his entire body cold. The intensity of ambient temperatures had consistently surprised Vergil since he’d lost his powers, but he’d yet to experience cold so deep it had seeped into his bones. Their earlier mirth diminished as he struggled to keep moving, and eventually Nightmare picked him up, nestling him against their warmer core as they trudged down the slope and into the valley.

It helped, but Nightmare’s warm was a soft and diffuse kind, and it mostly kept his situation from worsening. The sun had started its way down and Vergil couldn’t help but worry they’d find no suitable place to camp before it hid behind the mountains, leaving him freezing in the winter night. The familiars’ concern for him seeped through the mindlink, and he did his best to reassure them, even though he had no idea how to tell the cold would prove the source of permanent injury, and when it simply needed fire. Survival had been much easier when he had his powers.

Griffon’s excitement poured through the link, washing off everybody’s worry in a single, powerful blast.

_“Caw-ha! I found it, paper boy! Perfect place to rest your frozen toes and cozy up for the night!”_

He pushed a mental image through the link--a skill they still struggled with, though for general concepts it worked well enough. Vergil perceived a small hunter cabin, its back to a cliffside and tall pines around it. No lights or fire; perhaps it had been abandoned. Nightmare changed course, stalking off their barely-existent hiking trail to traipse through the woods while Griffon investigated.

Whatever his companion found, his excitement remained too strong for anything else to reach them through the link, yet when they finally approached the cabin, a faint prickle ran across Vergil’s arms. A sense of wrongness, of things that should not be. Shadow echoed his impression with a low growl.

“Demons,” Vergil stated.

He wrapped frozen fingers around the hilt of his katana and gestured for Nightmare to set him down. The demon would never fit through those doors, and Vergil would rather not destroy the cabin he meant to spend the night in. Besides, Shadow was tense but not overly worried, which meant the creatures inside shouldn’t be beyond their abilities.

Cold rendered each of his movement clumsy, but Vergil did his best to remain silent as he stalked to the door. His boots crunched into the snow, and his ears perked. Nothing moved inside, but he felt the auras more clearly now, one of the few demonic skills Dante hadn’t taken from him.

Just four lesser demons. No big deal. He set his shoulder against the door, then pushed it and opened the way for Shadow.

The panther bounded in with a roar, Vergil on her heels, Griffon swooping in above his head. The demons are more legs and joints than anything else, five misshapen appendages connected on a gnarly center with a single eye, each of the bone-grey limbs ending in a sharp claw. They leaped from ceilings and walls, the afternoon light giving them an orange glow, and though Vergil could spot no mouth upon them, a shrill screech pierced the air. He dipped in a roll and came up slashing forward, slicing one of the four, while Griffon’s lightning bolt zoomed past his head and slammed into a second, sending it writhing on the floor. Shadow had formed a massive jaw, and Vergil turned in time to see her clamp down on the two others with a single deadly bite.

It took them less than five seconds to eliminate the threat, if it could even be called that, and Vergil scoffed as he sheathed his katana. Now to scout out the place properly.

The cabin had no real walls to speak of apart from the bathroom. It was a single wide area with a fireplace on one end, the bedroom up on the mezzanine, and the kitchen under it, opposite of the fireplace. Everything fit tightly together in a cozy, efficient whole, and Vergil was pleased to note the sloped roof reach high enough that Nightmare could exist comfortably.

Griffon found the previous owner dead on the bed above, dessicated and frozen after the demons had sucked him dry. He and Shadow brought him outside while Vergil found everything he needed to start a fire and get some warmth into this place. Part of him wanted to search for a generator or a battery and figure out the rest of the amenities, but full-body shudders still shook him every few seconds and the cold had frozen even his mind. He felt sluggish and irate, so he peeled away the drenched clothes and changed into a dry outfit, found himself a wool blanket, and plopped down by the fire. Nightmare emerged from behind, wrapping their arms around him, careful to keep the spikes from digging into his skin, and Shadow stretched her massive weight on her lap, creating a circular dip in her back for Griffon to nestle in.

Nobody spoke while the fire's warmth filled the cabin and pushed away Vergil's bone-deep cold. Even when Griffon unsurprisingly broke their quiet moment, he did so in subdued tone.

“Ya know, this is a nice place. Quiet and cozy. No worrying about humans freaking out at our awesomeness.”

Griffon hated being confined in the cities. He kept slinking out of Vergil’s tattoos to fly reconnaissance and sometimes he made a point of scaring kids playing in the park, only to vanish when their parents came looking. They’d had to stay in a hotel for a long time while researching Cerberus’s shrine, and by the time Vergil had all the information he required, the neighbourhood had become convinced the library in which he worked was haunted because of his misbehaviour.

“I require access to many information sources, you know this.”

“Yeah yeah, boring dusty books, the worst part of demon archeology.” He flapped his wings and then nestled deeper into Shadow. “Ya should talk to this M girl more often. She’s fun and she always got something, nah?”

“She’s dangerous.”

And an excellent source of information, true. She’d been the first to imply cultists had erected a shrine in this area in an attempt to summon a Cerberus and thus ‘free the gates to Hell’. They had it all backwards, as was common with these people, but the ritual had been no less successful. They’d all died, and someone else (it might even have been Dante) had needed to kill the Cerberus, but the veil between the human and demon worlds had not been repaired. But M was a demon herself--one who traded in secrets and artifacts, and whose goals he didn’t trust in the least. He’d rather avoid her.

“You’re _boring_ , I tell ya!” Griffon declared.

“Then change host… if you can find one who’ll tolerate you.” Vergil tapped the top of Griffon’s head and a spike of offense coursed through their link. “I will concede that it is agreeable not to deal with other humans’ expectations.”

“So you agree then!” Griffon exclaimed, to his great confusion. “We outta come back here.”

The real answer came through the mindlink, expressed as a feeling his three demons may not entirely understand--a sense of belonging to a place, of safety and self-expression. _Home_. Vergil stiffened at the idea. He had spent his entire life on the run or trapped in Hell, and his sense of home had been shattered when demons had invaded his, setting it ablaze and killing his mother. Could a dingy log cabin ever replace that? Was there even a point, if it could be ripped from them so easily? He pulled the blanket tighter around his shoulders, his heart hammering hard.

“Ain’t nothing that profound,” Griffon said. “Just somewhere to rest our heels and play in the snow and whatnot--some place to return to, instead of another hotel room. Ain’t ya tired of those?”

“Certainly.”

He had never considered seeking out a place for himself, however. There was no need, and necessity had driven most of his life. Vergil allowed his gaze to travel away from the fireplace, to the higher ceiling, the frosted window, the half-empty bookshelves. Dust gathered on surfaces everywhere, but the cabin hadn’t been abandoned long enough to be in total disrepair. The location was ideal: fairly isolated, yet less than a day away from the city, if need be, and protected from many elements.

“Perhaps you are onto something, Griffon,” he said.

“Ah! Of course I am, paper boy!” He stretched his wings out and tilted his head in a silent demand for acknowledgement. Vergil rolled his eyes and ran his fingers over Griffon’s beak.

“What about everyone else?” he asked, questing along the mindlink for Shadow and Nightmare. It was still more difficult to perceive their mental states than Griffon’s, who was more than happy to communicate on their behalf, but Vergil preferred to try. Nightmare seemed content to follow where they would, but Shadow stretched her neck, contorting it so she could lick his face. Vergil startled at the move--no matter how often she did so, he’d yet to accustom himself to the affection. He scratched her ears with a soft chuckle.

“All right, then. Once we’ve documented the Cerberus shrine, we’ll pause our work and return here to assess the place more properly.”

Vergil closed his eyes and leaned back against Nightmare, letting the fire’s warmth wash over him. What a strange feeling, to have somewhere he could call his own, to store his research and decorate as he pleased. He would need to investigate the dead owner and ensure no family or friends would claim the cabin as their own, but barring any such complications, the cabin was theirs--a home for him and his demon family.


End file.
